Whether you work out five days a week or haven’t seen a gym in years, chances are, you own some performance wear. While exercise clothes used to be reserved solely for athletic settings, it’s hard to deny that, today, athleisure is now a part of many people’s everyday wardrobe, making the need for clothes that actually feel good on your body even more important. Creating clothes built to move with you is exactly the ethos behind SYS, a new South Korea-based brand that designs pieces built for both performance and everyday wear.

While SYS recently launched in the US, this spring marks the beginning of a new chapter. Ahead of the release of its Vital Collection, on May 5, the brand gave Dazed a first look at how it's bringing its design-forward process to life. According to SYS, the collection was inspired by “the intensity of active training and the confidence that comes with it”.

Don’t get put off by all the talk of training and performance, though. To SYS, this simply means tapping into your body – whatever that means to you – and enjoying the cathartic release that movement can bring. A core tenet of the brand is the belief that how you move through the world reflects the person that you are, emphasising the idea that movement is not a purely physical act, but one that reflects how we interact with ourselves, our environment and our community.

The act of moving intentionally is reflected everywhere in the brand’s designs (even down to the fabric itself). Back at the brand’s Innovation Lab in Korea, textile engineers and designers have created the proprietary fabric blends in a process that is iterative and technology-driven. The results are pieces that work in tandem with the wearer’s motions rather than restricting them.

Included in the collection are its best-selling fabrics, including the weightless ButterMelt material, which feels as buttery as the name suggests and appears in leggings, jackets and layered bra form. With a “second skin” approach, each of the new pieces has a natural look and feel, and could convince even the most anti-athleisure to give performance wear a try.

SYS is interested in building a community around movement: the rising brand has already hosted a three-day “Movement Lab” in New York City, and recently partnered with fitness studios in Los Angeles, Miami and New York. Needless to say, it’s not a stretch to say the story is to be continued.

Head here to shop the new SYS (Stretch Your Story) collection.